Running a 4k Monitor at 1080p

House · 7 May 2014 at 10:50

One of my monitors is about to fail (currently has a intermitent fault), another has some dead pixels so its time to splash so cash. Cant really complain they are about 10 years old (pair of hyundia L90Ds in portrait next to my main screen.)

However I only have a single 770 in my gaming rig right now and thats not going to run 4k on anything demanding so i was wondering.

How good does a 4k screen look if you run it at a none native res for gaming? It would obviously only be a stop gap till I can upgrade my GPU next year but monitors are the sort of thing you buy every 5-10 years not as often as GPUs.

snips86x · 7 May 2014 at 10:53

Personally, I'd look at getting a 1200/1440p monitor as 4K will require 2-3 GPUs for any decent (60fps) frame rate.

Baddass · 7 May 2014 at 14:25

for gaming, a modern 4k monitor should be able to interpolate the resolution without much loss of clarity. obviously not as ideal as a native 1080 screen for instance. Keep in mind 4k is very new and so there's far less choice for gaming needs in that sector than in the 1080 sector.

you'd be better with a really good 1080 screen i think, probably which can support 144Hz refresh, 1ms G2G response time, ideally some blur reduction feature and extra gaming bits and pieces. something like the BenQ XL2720Z or Eizo FG2401 would be excellent options

smilertoo · 7 May 2014 at 22:52

4k screens are exactly 4x HD res aren't they? so it should scale perfectly.

Gregster · 8 May 2014 at 20:38

I have a 4K Samsung monitor and still play BF3/4 at 1080P as it helps my crappy aim.

PCM2 · 8 May 2014 at 21:15

smilertoo said:
4k screens are exactly 4x HD res aren't they? so it should scale perfectly.

In theory yes, but in practice the interpolation process isn't that perfect and there can still be a degree of clarity loss compared to a native 1080p panel of the same size. I'll take a closer look at this when I review this model, of course.... That's if Samsung wants to give me one, I kind of broke the last monitor they sent me.

silvagti · 8 May 2014 at 21:40

How are folks with 28" 4k monitors finding the windows font scaling. Is it too small to use at native res and if so what level of scaling do you use?